Hollie Major Baker of Plains Township is providing musical direction for the 100th Season Celebration Concert, along with Chris LaFrance and Joanna Bryn Smith.
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Show kicks off anniversary season
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Television personality Chris Bohinski will sing a solo about 76 trombones, from the show “The Music Man.’”
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Little Theatre artistic director Scott Colin Woolnough will give a reading from ‘The Elephant’s Child,’ which was the first show LTWB ever produced, in 1923.
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Greg Korin, who appeared in several LTWB productions years ago, now lives in the Southwest and, according to general manager David Parmelee, ‘traveled the furthest to get here.’
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Two singers rehearse a medley from LTWB’s production of ‘Mamma Mia.’
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Phil Ioanna of Nanticoke lends his talents to the orchestra for the 100th anniversary concert.
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Meg Davis performs a song from ‘Grease,’ while accompanying herself on guitar.
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
Jose Adames sings as the character Roger in a medley from ‘Rent.’
Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography
During 100 years of performances, Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre has been the setting for many show-stopping tunes, from touching ballads and poignant duets to joyous ensemble numbers.
So, as organizers planned this weekend’s 100th Season Celebration Concert, the big question was: Which songs to include?
“At one point we had a list we could have started singing on a Friday and ended on a Sunday,” company manager Dan Nudo said.
“Before you know it, it would have been like Woodstock,” said general manager David Parmelee, noting that of course the list was whittled down.
Every decade since Little Theatre opened is represented in the concert, perhaps by music from a show that was set in an era, the way “Chicago” is set during the 1920s; or perhaps by music from a show that Little Theatre might have staged in the 1950s or the 1970s or much more recently.
Music direction is provided by Chris LaFrance, Hollie Major Baker and Joanna Bryn Smith; a chorus of some 58 voices will provide harmony, and Major Baker counts a large contingent of 17 musicians in the orchestra pit.
“That’s definitely my pride and joy,” she said happily.
Since the centennial concert is “a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Nudo said, many people have wanted to participate.
That includes veteran actors like Alice Lyons, who will reprise a song she performed in a Little Theatre production of “Into the Woods,” and her mom, Lisa Fink, who will reprise “Do You Love Me?” with Walter Mitchell in a Golde/Tevye duet from “Fiddler on the Roof.”
It includes singers as diverse as Cassie DeCosmo Poor of Drums, who “hasn’t acted since high school but loves to sing,” and Greg Korin, who moved from Northeastern Pennsylvania to Las Vegas years ago but returned to his LTWB stomping grounds just to participate.
“It’s amazing to me how a decade has passed since I saw these guys,” Korin posted on his Facebook page. “And it’s like I never left.”
As she waited her turn to rehearse on Tuesday evening, veteran actor Deirdre Navin from Edwardsville said she will solo “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun,” from “Annie, Get Your Gun.”
It’s her first time back onstage since becoming a mom to baby daughter Lily 6 months ago and, she surmised, eventually Lily is likely to find her way into a show, too.
Also waiting to rehearse was Karen Padden of Laurel Run, who happens to be singing in the chorus with her son, Logan.
Noting that her first experience at Little Theatre was a 1987 young people’s workshop, during which she met her now-husband, Rob, Padden said the couple appeared in several Little Theatre shows throughout the 1990s.
Then, on one memorable occasion when she was going to portray a townsperson in “Our Town,” she said, “I was backstage when my water broke, and Rob had his costume on when we went to the hospital.” That’s when Logan was born.
Explaining the concert has been her “first chance to come back” in a while, Padden said, “Just being here is pure bliss.”
For the audience, several participants said, the music should be pure bliss as well.
“There’s a deeply talented group of musicians here,” Walter Mitchell said. “The ‘Beauty and the Beast’ medley and the ‘Mamma Mia’ medley, they alone are worth the price of admission,”
” ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has eight-part harmony,” Karen Padden said. “It’s exquisite.”
Another harmonious blending of voices is the a capella version of “Somewhere” from “West Side Story.”
“We hated it at first,” Padden said. “It was so hard.”
“Now we love it,” Navin said.
One of the music directors, Joanna Bryn Smith, said she’s proud of the chorus. “We have a group of people coming from different places — some are classically trained; some don’t read music — and they’re doing a great job representing 100 years of creative arts.”
The show doesn’t consist entirely of music, especially since Little Theatre started to perform musicals in earnest during the 1950s. Before that, Parmelee said, the theater presented straight plays, and during this weekend’s production, LTWB artistic director Scott Colin Woolnough will give a reading from “the very first show,” the 1923 production of “The Elephant’s Child.”
This weekend, show times are 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28 and Saturday, Jan. 29 and 3 p.m. Sunday. Jan. 30. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at ltwb.org, by calling the box office at 570-823-1975, or at the door.
The rest of the anniversary season is scheduled to include “Footloose,” “Chicago,” “Rent,” “Into the Woods,” “The Rocky Horror Show” and a holiday show.
